Lucha Underground’s Mariposa On How Her Tribe Role Came Up, What Makes LU Stand Out, Why She’d Go To WWE As A Coach

Lucha Underground’s Mariposa was a recent guest on Women’s Wrestling Weekly; you can read a few highlights and watch the full episode in the above player. Women’s Wrestling Weekly is also available on iTunes:

So, basically…when I first met with Lucha Underground, they had already had in mind that there was going to be I think 5 or 7 Tribes. And each Tribe was going to be “The Snake Tribe” and the This Tribe and That Tribe, and two of the Tribe Leaders were female…and they did actually open the door to give me an option whether do I want to go this direction, or do I want to go that direction? So I ended up choosing The Moth Tribe…My personality and my wrestling style fit what they needed for the character specifically. So it was a character that they had already came [sic] up with, they just needed somebody to fill the role.

You know who I’ve always wanted to wrestle but she’s retired now, [in WWE/Smackdown] is I’ve always wanted to have a singles match with Lioness Asuka. Yeah, I’m going back like a long time — I got to tag with her in Arsion when I was in Japan in 2002. That would have been my dream match, to have a singles with her.

I’ve learned about myself over the years, and I really, really enjoy helping people and I’ve really gotten to get a lot of experience working behind the scenes, and I just feel like I’d be more valuable to the company doing that. Especially being female wrestler with my experience I would be able to focus on helping the girls. If they ever needed or wanted guidance, I would love to be that person for them.

No…and, uh, not interested…the drama and politics wasn’t fun at the time. But, I mean, who I am to say that now? I mean, they have a completely new staff, times have definitely changed. New ownership and everything, so really me saying that kinda has no credibility now…but, no, I still don’t wanna go back (laughs)…Not for any negative reasons, I’m happy where I’m at right now.

Definitely Io [Shirai] now, even though Io hasn’t really personally announced that she is going to WWE, but she did announce that she’s leaving Stardom…and then of course there are The Rivers…but if and when Io goes to the WWE and debuts, I mean, she’s amazing. I mean, they were amazing when they came to Lucha Underground. They’re gonna be so amazing in WWE.

This may sound like a little biased because she’s one of my best friends, but Taya [Valkyrie]. I love watching her wrestle, I mean who doesn’t? She’s so entertaining! I love watching her, and I think she’s gonna really blow up even more than she already is now.

Chris DeJoseph On What Draws People To Lucha Underground, Unexpected Hiatus In Season 3, Differences In Writing For LU And WWE

It’s just crazy, ridiculous…It’s definitely as crazy as it looks [in the trailer]. I don’t have any specifics on when we will be filming again…it does appear that Mariposa will be coming back…

First of all, Lucha Underground is not a “wrestling company.” It’s a TV show and it’s treated like a television show. For example, WWE, there’s no Seasons when it comes to WWE. And with Lucha Underground, it’s a television show — we film seasons, and then everybody’s off and back to working other jobs and taking other gigs. So, first of all, it’s a television show — it’s treated like a TV show in the aspect of not just the unique storylines but, I mean, we have characters! We have dragons and witches and people are “immortal” and hell, I mean on Season 2 when I debuted I “killed” five people! So, it’s an exaggerated TV show with Lucha Libre being almost kind of like the supporting character of the show, if you will. And that’s how it’s really separated out.

And another thing that makes it stand out if you go to a live event, which I absolutely love, is the experience doesn’t start once the show starts. The experience starts from outside…when you’re coming to a taping, it’s in an older building, it’s kind of dirty (laughs) — it’s got a real underground feel as you’re walking in, and when you’re in The Temple, just down to the little details and the lighting, really really brings in that different experience than what you would have at a normal wrestling show.

I would say Raisha Saeed was my favorite and not favorite. Not Favorite because, the mask HOT and it was impossible to breathe in that thing. But, my Favorite because there were a lot of times where I was on TV and all I had to do was manage.  And I’ll be honest I’d be up there and I was like ‘Yeah, I’m standing here and this is payday, I don’t have to do anything!”

One of my favorite matches that was just absolute FUN was in Shimmer, I had a match with Thunder Kitty. And it was just fun! First of all, everyone was just really excited about it, so we didn’t even touch each other, we didn’t even lock up for a good few minutes at the beginning of the match and the fans were already on their feet and they were like really excited!